DeadState

A disturbing video posted to LiveLeak last week has some California residents a little wary of visiting their local popular hiking spot.

The video, titled “I made a ‘Friend’ on the Mountain…Wait for it…,” features a masked individual filming a woman as she walks up the trail on Montara Mountain near Santa Cruz California, presumably unaware that she’s being filmed. The man who’s filming then turns the camera around in his direction, revealing an intense grin followed by insidious laughter after the camera pans back around.

The person who posted the video writes, “Just the way I like to spend my time once I’m at the “Peak”…;) I’ll upload the rest of the video later…”

Police and park rangers are investigating the situation and reportedly have obtained the poster’s contact information. According to a statement from Cap. Daniel Steidle of the Pacifica Police Dept., a bulletin about a suspicious person in the Montara Mountain area was sent out last Thursday to other law inforcement agencies in the county.

“When someone posts a video like this, it warrants law enforcement’s attention,” Steidle said. “We have identified the individual and once we locate him, will (sic) find out what his intent is and put the public’s mind at ease.”

7 Comments

He’s not doing anything illegal though. If you are in public, you have no expectation of privacy. Photography (which includes video) is a constitutional right.

MrX

October 2, 2013 at 7:19 am

You know, I was able to find out that the police had already talked to him within about a minute. My question: why didn’t you guys just put a little more time into your research?! http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=812_1380676720

Frankly, I don’t blame the police for checking it out, even though “Gortevans” tried to make it about some invasion of his civil rights or some statement on how paranoid people are, that he didn’t do anything illegal, that the police were “wasting resources” checking him out. He said the reason he was wearing the mask is because the bugs bug his face when he’s up there. Bullshit. It was creepy and he knew the effect he was creating. And in the end HE’S the one wasting police resources while he’s on his ego parade.

Juliet

October 3, 2013 at 12:40 am

You’d sing a different tune if YOU were recorded clandestinely and the video posted accompanied by a creepy stalker laugh.

Juliet

October 3, 2013 at 12:58 am

And if the woman (or another woman in that area) was murdered, would you have that attitude?

Women are disproportionately vulnerable to violence. We cannot afford to disregard covert video recording as ‘obviously a joke.’

A disturbing number of people (of both sexes) dismiss creepiness towards women. We’re supposed to ‘loosen up’ or ‘have a sense of humor’ when men catcall, touch us without permission, or bother us for no reason besides our gender. Talk to the women who’ve been called ugly names because they did not accept the attentions of random strangers, or who have cringed in fear as a man worked himself into an angry frenzy for not ‘flirting’ back. Or to the ones who were beaten up for asserting their desire to be left in peace.

Far too many men think women ‘owe’ them for their attentions. We’re supposed to smile on command; look pretty on command; answer intrusive, personal questions that no man is ever asked, and provide sex on demand.